We built a barn.
A couple of weekends ago, Randy and I undertook a construction project to build a barn. Well, more of a shed. It was bloody humid, but we got the wood cut, got a frame up, and then do you know what happened? It fell down? Rabid monkeys ate the nails? No, though these are all good guesses. Instead, someone stole my cell phone.
It happened like this: the phone was uncomfortable in my pocket, so I took it out and placed it on the hood of Randy's roommate's truck while we cut wood about 4 feet away. I then left it there, and the roommate decided that now would be a good time to take the trash out. Only, out here one doesn't do this by dragging a bin on wheels to the end of your driveway. One does this by throwing the bags in the back of the truck, and driving them two miles away to the dump. Where, somewhere along the way, the cellphone flew off the front of the car and landed who-knows-where. And of course, we didn't notice for 4 hours, until it was almost dark.
I know what you're thinking. Ellie, this isn't a description of theft, it's just careless misplacement. But wait, it gets better. We spend a couple of hours looking for the phone, including driving around in Randy's truck with an old phone on the front, trying to see where it might fly off. Finally, defeated, we go back to my place for a change of clothes. All this time, Randy has been calling my phone on his, but it was either dead or out of range. On a whim, he gives it one last call... and it picks up! Mr. Sleepy says into the phone, "Hello...? Hello...? Hello...?", apparently unable to hear us. So he calls back. And again. And again. The thing had to have been driving them crazy, until finally a girl picks up. And the following conversation follows:
Randy: Hello? You've got my girlfriends cell phone, we lost it alongside the road.
Girl: We found it on the side of the road.
Randy: Yeah. It was on the hood of my roommates car, and it fell off. Can we get it back?
Girl: click.
So, now my phone has gone from lost to stolen, you see? We called her back until she started picking up and hanging up to make it stop, and then turned the phone off. We text messaged her. And then I called my friendly AT&T Customer Service Agent, who disabled my phone and told me that they hadn't made any expensive hour-long calls to Timbuktu, or anything. The next day, I got a new phone, and while I had to pay to upgrade the package (no phone insurance), the did e-price matching on the phone itself. If you're ever in the area and need a phone, you gotta go see Dawna.
And then the shed fell over. No, really. Monday we had a storm, and the nails pulled out, and the whole frame came crashing down. Last weekend we rebuilt the frame using screws, and this weekend, we're going to finish the roof and slap some walls on this thing.
So the moral of this story is, when building, leave your cell phone in the house. And use screws. Thus endeth the lesson.